cmo
11/20/07, 12:31 AM
Let's pray for those who lost their lives so suddenly!
From Yahoo news!
by Shafiq Alam
MAJHER CHAR, Bangladesh (AFP) - Soldiers and relief workers raced Monday to get aid to millions left destitute by the cyclone in Bangladesh, where the official death toll has topped 3,100 and is certain to rise.
http://us.bc.yahoo.com/b?P=6GMhctG_Rt3SahjORvSzjwLNfdR7DkdBvYsADYIf&T=1c1mj9m8p%2fX%3d1195490699%2fE%3d95959686%2fR%3d news%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d2.1%2fW%3dH%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d3 960245734%2fH%3dY2FjaGVoaW50PSJuZXdzIiBjb250ZW50PS JyZWxpZWY7YWlkO3N1cnZpdm9ycztoZWxwO2VtZXJnZW5jeTtn b3Zlcm5tZW50O21pbGl0YXJ5O2Rpc2FzdGVyO2l0O29pbDtJdD tjaGlsZHJlbjtyZWZ1cmxfd3d3X3lhaG9vX2NvbSIgcmVmdXJs PSJyZWZ1cmxfd3d3X3lhaG9vX2NvbSIgdG9waWNzPSJyZWZ1cm xfd3d3X3lhaG9vX2NvbSI-%2fQ%3d-1%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3d8146BFD1&U=13boocb1p%2fN%3dQw1bFdj8YnE-%2fC%3d619400.11487181.12132664.1442997%2fD%3dLREC %2fB%3d4972598
Untold numbers of survivors were in urgent need of food, water and medical help in the south, one of the poorest areas of the world, which was battered by a colossal storm Thursday night that swept entire villages away.
The emergency-rule government called in the military to help, and four days after disaster struck the relief effort appeared to be picking up.
Homes, food stocks, crops, livestock and drinking water were all washed away by a six-metre (20-foot) tidal wave that smashed into the coast along with Cyclone Sidr.
In many places the situation was desperate.
"Ninety-five percent of all the 40,000 houses in this sub-district have been washed away," local administrator Salim Khan told AFP in the coastal town of Patharghata. Dozens of distraught villagers were outside his office pleading to be given food, water and medicines.
"People are hungry. Some supplies are going out but it is taking time," he said.
So far just over 3,100 people have been confirmed dead, although M. Abdur Rab, chairman of the Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society, has said the final figure was likely to end up somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 lives lost.
The World Food Programme said with most main roads now cleared, the aid effort was accelerating.
"Access is getting better every day," said Douglas Casson Coutts, WFP's country representative.
"We have had to use boats to deliver food but it was possible to do it," he said, adding that he expected everyone in need would be reached within a few days.
But with the bloated corpses of people and animals dotting this section of coast of the Bay of Bengal, and little left in the way of medical treatment, fears of disease added to the human misery.
Officials said the armed forces were working to deliver relief by air, road and sea in conjunction with aid agencies.
Pledges of millions of dollars in donations have also been pouring in -- with the most generous promise, 100 million dollars, coming from oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
The European Commission and individual EU member states have also pledged millions, while US ships were powering to the disaster zone with dozens of helicopters for evacuations.
Many survivors, however, told AFP they still had not received any help.
"There are many villages in remote areas, including on sandbank islands, that are yet to be reached," said Heather Blackwell, the Bangladesh head of the British aid group Oxfam.
"We don't know the losses sustained in those regions. It could take weeks before we know exactly how bad this cyclone was."
Along the coast, entire stretches of road were washed away by a tidal wave several metres high, said an AFP reporter who is moving through the worst-hit areas.
On the river island of Majher Char near the southern coast, survivors said all bar half a dozen of the island's 70 children had been taken by the storm. Many of these bodies will never be found.
Along the coastline 200 kilometres (130 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, villages are without food or water, and the bodies of people and livestock are floating in rivers and fields.
The rice harvest -- or four months of food -- has also been washed away. Oxfam said it believed 50 to 95 percent of crops had been destroyed in coastal zones, and that this will have "immediate and long-term devastating effects."
Pope Benedict XVI appealed Sunday for international solidarity to aid the Muslim nation, appealing to "help these brothers so sorely tried."
The area is one of the most impoverished parts of Bangladesh, itself one of the world's poorest countries.
From Yahoo news!
by Shafiq Alam
MAJHER CHAR, Bangladesh (AFP) - Soldiers and relief workers raced Monday to get aid to millions left destitute by the cyclone in Bangladesh, where the official death toll has topped 3,100 and is certain to rise.
http://us.bc.yahoo.com/b?P=6GMhctG_Rt3SahjORvSzjwLNfdR7DkdBvYsADYIf&T=1c1mj9m8p%2fX%3d1195490699%2fE%3d95959686%2fR%3d news%2fK%3d5%2fV%3d2.1%2fW%3dH%2fY%3dYAHOO%2fF%3d3 960245734%2fH%3dY2FjaGVoaW50PSJuZXdzIiBjb250ZW50PS JyZWxpZWY7YWlkO3N1cnZpdm9ycztoZWxwO2VtZXJnZW5jeTtn b3Zlcm5tZW50O21pbGl0YXJ5O2Rpc2FzdGVyO2l0O29pbDtJdD tjaGlsZHJlbjtyZWZ1cmxfd3d3X3lhaG9vX2NvbSIgcmVmdXJs PSJyZWZ1cmxfd3d3X3lhaG9vX2NvbSIgdG9waWNzPSJyZWZ1cm xfd3d3X3lhaG9vX2NvbSI-%2fQ%3d-1%2fS%3d1%2fJ%3d8146BFD1&U=13boocb1p%2fN%3dQw1bFdj8YnE-%2fC%3d619400.11487181.12132664.1442997%2fD%3dLREC %2fB%3d4972598
Untold numbers of survivors were in urgent need of food, water and medical help in the south, one of the poorest areas of the world, which was battered by a colossal storm Thursday night that swept entire villages away.
The emergency-rule government called in the military to help, and four days after disaster struck the relief effort appeared to be picking up.
Homes, food stocks, crops, livestock and drinking water were all washed away by a six-metre (20-foot) tidal wave that smashed into the coast along with Cyclone Sidr.
In many places the situation was desperate.
"Ninety-five percent of all the 40,000 houses in this sub-district have been washed away," local administrator Salim Khan told AFP in the coastal town of Patharghata. Dozens of distraught villagers were outside his office pleading to be given food, water and medicines.
"People are hungry. Some supplies are going out but it is taking time," he said.
So far just over 3,100 people have been confirmed dead, although M. Abdur Rab, chairman of the Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society, has said the final figure was likely to end up somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 lives lost.
The World Food Programme said with most main roads now cleared, the aid effort was accelerating.
"Access is getting better every day," said Douglas Casson Coutts, WFP's country representative.
"We have had to use boats to deliver food but it was possible to do it," he said, adding that he expected everyone in need would be reached within a few days.
But with the bloated corpses of people and animals dotting this section of coast of the Bay of Bengal, and little left in the way of medical treatment, fears of disease added to the human misery.
Officials said the armed forces were working to deliver relief by air, road and sea in conjunction with aid agencies.
Pledges of millions of dollars in donations have also been pouring in -- with the most generous promise, 100 million dollars, coming from oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
The European Commission and individual EU member states have also pledged millions, while US ships were powering to the disaster zone with dozens of helicopters for evacuations.
Many survivors, however, told AFP they still had not received any help.
"There are many villages in remote areas, including on sandbank islands, that are yet to be reached," said Heather Blackwell, the Bangladesh head of the British aid group Oxfam.
"We don't know the losses sustained in those regions. It could take weeks before we know exactly how bad this cyclone was."
Along the coast, entire stretches of road were washed away by a tidal wave several metres high, said an AFP reporter who is moving through the worst-hit areas.
On the river island of Majher Char near the southern coast, survivors said all bar half a dozen of the island's 70 children had been taken by the storm. Many of these bodies will never be found.
Along the coastline 200 kilometres (130 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, villages are without food or water, and the bodies of people and livestock are floating in rivers and fields.
The rice harvest -- or four months of food -- has also been washed away. Oxfam said it believed 50 to 95 percent of crops had been destroyed in coastal zones, and that this will have "immediate and long-term devastating effects."
Pope Benedict XVI appealed Sunday for international solidarity to aid the Muslim nation, appealing to "help these brothers so sorely tried."
The area is one of the most impoverished parts of Bangladesh, itself one of the world's poorest countries.